Ready for Binding

Good morning, my friends. There's a lot on today's agenda, so let's get right to it, okay? When I left you yesterday, I had just the crazy quilt blocks on the sides of my quilt to finish quilting. Already, I'd decided to do this motif:

It might be a little easier to see from the back:

It's a motif called "Square Flower" and it was Lori Kennedy's contribution to this book:

My quilting day was only just getting started. We'd been to the grocery store, and I was waiting for Mike so we could go pick some tart cherries from our neighbors' tree. I only needed enough for 6 cups of pitted cherries. It didn't take very long for us to accumulate what we needed. Actually, I ended up with an extra 2 cups. Those are pitted and frozen for another time. Today, I'll be making some tart cherry jam with the remainder. Aren't they pretty?

Okay, so I put those away for my later pitting pleasure, and went back to work on my quilting. When I had one full side done, I took a break.

There were canning jars to be selected and loaded into the dishwasher, and I needed to count out rings and lids. When that was all settled, I came back and finished the second side. The second side was supposed to have waited until today, but everything got moved up a slot on the to-do list when the cherries came into my life.

And with both sides finished, the quilting was done.

It still needs binding, but here's the finished quilt. For as much as I dragged my feet getting started, it went very well.

Here are a couple of shots from the back, although it's hard to see anything there.

The two threads I was using, So Fine! on top and Bottom Line on the bottom, performed beautifully. The So Fine! thread was especially nice for stitching around the embroidery. Even where I crossed over the floss with my thread, it's nearly invisible. I had a little bit of thread breakage with the top thread, but I believe it was because I needed a larger needle. It was a problem minor enough that I never actually changed the needle.

As I was finishing up, Mike summoned me to come outside. The little violet-green swallows were fledging. The one you see sitting on top of the nest box and clinging to the siding of the house was the only one we actually saw flying.

Two more sat in the openings to the nest boxes girding up their loins to take the plunge.

The flyer was happy he decided to break into song.

There are nests in at least three of our four nest boxes this year.

It's been fun watching them, and we'll miss them when they're gone for good. Maybe we'll see them again next year.

Mike was busy under the fifth wheel, putting the underbelly back together after his electrical fix. It was time to start dinner, but he still needed some time to finish what he was doing. It seemed like as good a time as any to get to work pitting the cherries. For a few moments, I hesitated about pitting more cherries and making my wrist hurt again. In an abundance of caution, I donned my wrist splint and put on a surgical glove to keep it from getting cherry juice all over it. Then, I went to work with the pitting only to realize I'm using the other hand for pitting. Weird. So now I'm not sure what caused me so much wrist pain the other day. I can only think it was the quilting. Whatever the cause, it's still feeling fine today, so who knows? It's one of those mystery ailments I've come to expect from time to time.

So here's what's happening today. I'm getting my hair cut, and then I want to make a quick stop off at a store that sells my mid-arm machine. I've read about a ruler foot compatible with my machine, and it appears they sell it. So I'll check that out, and then I'll head for home. Those pretty cherries have an appointment with a boiling water bath later today. I'll be using them to make some tart cherry jam. Fortunately, we have leftovers for dinner, and so I expect I'll have some time to sew the binding on my quilt. After that...the sky's the limit. Actually, I'll want to get busy on that Tiny House if there is time left in the day.

As usual, there's plenty to do here. To my friends back east, I hope y'all are staying safe from the flooding. What a mess. Stay safe and stay dry, my friends. Let's meet up again tomorrow morning, okay?